


Oops!

by ShibeHut



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Animagus Harry Potter, Child Harry Potter, Ghosts, Hypnotism, Magical Accidents, Psychic Abilities, Time Lord Harry Potter, Time Tots | Babies (Doctor Who)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26352514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShibeHut/pseuds/ShibeHut
Summary: Sometimes a Witch or Wizard may find themselves occupying the body of a different sentient species instead of an animal after completing the Animagus Transformation.Be warned that this type of transformation is considered a permanent change of species as there is no known reversal.'Well,' thought Harry. 'They really should have put that warning at thebeginningof the book.'
Comments: 46
Kudos: 400





	1. Prologue

It had started in his first year, his first transfiguration class, to be exact.

Harry had wanted to get to leave for their class early, to make sure they got there on time, Ron had complained but eventually relented.

They'd walked into the classroom that was marked on their timetables for the class, only to notice there was no teacher, instead, there was a tabby cat perched on the desk, watching them like a hawk.

Harry and Ron shuffled over to sit at a desk, talking quietly to themselves as they waited for the lesson to begin.

When the time passed for the lesson to begin and the teacher didn't appear, they'd all began to get loud as they voiced their confusion.

When five minutes had passed, Dean, one of their roommates, had rushed in, seemingly relaxing when he saw there was no teacher in sight.

And then the cat had transformed into Professor McGonagall.

Harry decided, then and there, that he wanted to learn how to do that, because if he could do that, then he could spend the summer living as a cat so that he wouldn't have to deal with his relatives.

In that year, along with the regular first year course and the issues that came with Quirrell and the Philosopher's stone, Harry learnt everything he could about what he'd learnt was called the 'Animagus Transformation'.

Anyone could do it, so long as they put the time and effort into it, and what you transformed into was based on a few factors, including external issues, energy influxes, and your personality.

Harry wondered what he would be.

When he went to Diagon Alley that summer, he picked up a few books on the Animagus Transformation, looking for information that he couldn't find in school, along with a booklet with information on high quality owl order potioneers.

The Animagus Transformation required a potion, after all, and Harry was not good with those.

In his second year, he opened up an owl correspondence with a potion's master located in Spain, he gave the man an alias so that it wouldn't get out that Harry Potter was looking into becoming an Animagus, not only illegally, but very underaged too.

The man luckily did not care about the fact that what seemed to be a student was inquiring about the potion, after all, said student was willing to pay for it, he certainly had the money.

By the end of his second year, along with killing a thousand year old Basilisk, Harry had a general idea of what he'd need to do when he got the potion.

He would receive the potion on the night of the full moon, once he had it, he would need to add one mandrake leaf that had been in his mouth for one month, re-stopper the potion, and shake it.

Then, after drinking the potion, he should change to his Animagus form.

Simple enough.

In that summer, he managed to acquire the number of galleons that the Spanish potioneer would charge him.

He knew that there wouldn't be the chance to do the transformation while in school, as he highly doubted his ability to hide the fact that he was holding a mandrake leaf in his mouth from the teachers, who likely knew how to spot something like that happening.

So, he would have to do it in the summer while with his relatives who wouldn't care if he didn't exactly speak to them for a month or so, hell, they'd probably encourage it.

He couldn't do it that summer, however, as it was almost over as it was, so he'd need to wait another year, something which didn't exactly bother him too badly, he had plenty of patience from his earlier years.

That year, Sirius Black broke out of Azkaban and Dementors were stationed around the school.

That year, Hermione Granger, a close friend of Harry's was entrusted with a Time Turner.

That year, Harry Potter time travelled.

And when Harry put the mandrake leaf in his mouth that summer, just a couple of weeks later, energy from the Time Vortex still clung to him.

And that had made quite the difference.


	2. Chapter 1

The first thing that Harry noticed when he woke up after taking the Animagus potion was that his vision was much clearer than it had been previously, from his awkward position on the floor, he could clearly make out the pattern in the grain of wooden flooring two full metres away from where his face was.

Not only that, but the colours appeared to be much brighter too, what had once appeared to be faded blue curtains stood out with its patchwork of various blues, shades he'd never known even existed creating swirling patterns that seemingly shimmered where the sunlight caught it.

His hearing had also improved, where before he could hear his relatives only because they were so loud, now it as if they were just outside of his bedroom door, he could even hear the next door neighbour complaining to her daughter about aunt Petunia.

He breathed in through his nose and noticed that his sense of smell had also increased and that he could now tell apart different scents, Hedwig, who was perched in her cage, smelled of feathers, spruce wood, and what he could only describe as the wind.

Harry lifted his head further and sniffed at the air, interested in the different things he could smell, a small part of himself was glad that the door wasn't open, as he wasn't sure he'd be able to stand the smells that his relatives gave off, after all, uncle Vernon did tend to sweat an awful lot.

After spending an unknown amount of time laying on the floor, getting used to his new senses, Harry decided it would be a good idea to see what he now was.

He rolled onto his stomach and placed his hands down in front of his chest so that he could push himself up and paused.

Hands.

He still had hands.

Wasn't he supposed to have paws or something? Possibly flippers? It was an Animagus Transformation after all.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, but shook his head, he had to see what he was first.

Harry pushed upwards, onto his knees, and then up onto his legs.

'Guess I'm still bipedal.' He thought.

He walked over to a small shattered mirror in the corner of the room, he'd managed to take the mirror before the Dursley's had thrown it away a week prior.

He paused in front of it, took a deep breath, then looked down.

A child.

There was a literal child staring back at him.

"What the fuck?"

He stumbled backwards and took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

"Alright Harry, this is okay, just change back and forget this even happened," He told himself.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pushing his magic through his body as he'd done many times prior in practice, once it was spread evenly, he pushed the feeling of changing back to himself, remembering how it felt to be himself.

He thought about the duller senses, about his poor eyesight, and about the fact that he was a young teenager, not what looked like a toddler or a really young child.

Harry opened his eyes, expecting to be back to normal.

Nothing happened.

He gulped, and stumbled over to his desk, where his books on the Animagus Transformation were stacked, he'd managed to sneak them into his room without his relatives knowing so that he would be able to read them if he encountered any problems.

His favourite so far had been one called 'Animagi; Myth vs Fact' and had a comprehensible list of questions and answers.

He pulled himself up on the wobbly chair and opened the large book that was sat in the centre of the desk, flipping through the book to try and find an answer.

He paused in his flipping, closed the book, flipped it open to a random page, took a quick look at it, then closed it once more.

That was… Interesting.

Harry grabbed a small paperback dictionary from the corner of the desk and flipped through the entire book, staring at the area the book was in, once it was shut, he placed it back in the corner and sat back in the chair, processing what had just happened.

Apparently his Animagus form could retain information from just a glance.

Harry shook his head and decided to think about that after he'd solved his current problem and turned back to the hardback book.

He opened the front page and slowly flipped through them, stopping when he saw an entire section that might have answers he was looking for.

'Animagi magics and sentient species' it was called.

And if Harry had any guess, it would be that whatever his Animagus form's species was, it was definitely sentient.

_The Animagus Transformation can be a tricky process, and many different things can contribute to what shape you take._

_There are many minor influences on what form you take; your diet, your surroundings, and even people you see regularly are just a few examples of this._

_Some major outside influences also exist, such as different energies that you may be exposed to, which is why it is recommended for a Witch or Wizard attempting the transformation to go through a purification ritual._

Harry skimmed through the rest of the page before he came to an abrupt halt and carefully re-read what he'd seen.

_Sometimes a Witch or Wizard may find themselves occupying the body of a different sentient species instead of an animal after completing the Animagus Transformation._

_Be warned that this type of transformation is considered a permanent change of species as there is no known reversal._

'Well,' thought Harry. 'They really should have put that warning at the _beginning_ of the book.'

He sighed and shut the book, then looked down at his legs, noticing for the first time since he woke up just what he was wearing.

A shirt, nothing else, his trousers and boxers having obviously fallen off when he'd shrunk to his new size.

"Suppose I'll have to do something about that."

He looked around his room and frowned, leaning back in thought.

"I can't stay here anymore," he looked towards the loose floorboard where his invisibility cloak, wand, vault key, and money pouch were all hidden. "I can leave pretty easily, but where would I go?"

He couldn't go to Sirius, as he was on the run, and he couldn't go to Hogwarts, because he wasn't a human anymore and it was pretty obvious, especially for a group of people who have to know how to tell the subtle differences between Human and Vampire, or Human and Werewolf.

Other than the whole being a literal child thing he had going on, he'd already noticed a bit of an oddity in his chest area, known as a second heart.

The mass population of Magical Britain was very much against anything not human and Harry did not exactly wish to be killed or worse, experimented on by the Department of Mysteries, he'd heard the horror stories and was going to take them as the warning they were.

Harry closed his eyes and sighed.

"Well Hedwig, it looks like it's just us now."

He got up, gathered his stuff from the loose floorboard, stuffing his wand, key, and money pouch in the large pocket on the shirt. He let Hedwig out of her cage, watching as she stretched her wings then took off out the window.

He then looked around once more and made his way to the bedroom door, flinging his invisibility cloak around him, making sure none of him peaked out of the fabric, and that he wouldn't trip over its edges.

He crept down the stairs and quietly made his way past the living room where Dudley was watching the television, uncle Vernon was 'reading' the newspaper, and aunt Petunia was doing some ironing.

He entered the kitchen and made a beeline for the backdoor, he could have gone through the front, but the neighbours might find it strange, seeing the door open and close by itself.

Harry opened the door, stepped outside, then shut it behind him, the nearly silent click had him feeling more alone than he ever had before.

He took a deep breath and walked forwards into the small woodland area surrounding the neighbourhood.

He would be okay.

His eyes watered and he stifled a sob.

He would _have_ to be.


	3. Chapter 2

Harry didn't know how long he'd been walking for, the woodland area that surrounded the neighbourhood apparently stretched on a lot further than he'd expected and flanked a local motorway.

He'd started walking along the motorway, just inside the treeline where the ground was softer thanks to the grass and moss that covered the ground, as opposed to the concrete and road tar that made up the massive roadside.

His bare feet ached, but luckily, they were not bleeding.

He'd taken his invisibility cloak off after a while of walking and Hedwig had joined him, alternating between perching on a branch atop a tree, perching on his head and preening him, and flying alongside him as he walked.

It had been early morning when he had fled Privet Drive, he looked up at the sky, noting how its bright blues had slowly begun to bleed with the pinkish-orange glow of the setting sun. He turned his head to where the sky was slightly darker, noting that he could just about make out the slowly appearing form of some stars.

Harry sighed and let his head drop down to stare at his shirt, which now dropped town to rest a couple of inches above his ankles, the once off-white colour had been stained with mud from where he'd slipped down a rather steep incline a few hours prior and the bottom of the fabric was littered with small tears where he'd gotten caught on branches, brambles, and small rocks.

Being alone like he had been for these long hours had given his new instincts time to settle, and with them, it bought out a whole slew of childish emotions and wants.

He was cold, tired, hungry, thirsty, scared and alone and he wanted an adult _now_ , please.

And yet there was no-one around to comfort him, no-one to tell him it would be okay, to hold him as he cried.

Just him and Hedwig, alone in the woods.

A wave of exhaustion hit him, and Harry found himself falling backwards landing hard on his butt as his legs throbbed in agony.

His chest felt tight and he could feel tears welling up in his eyes, he shook his head and rubbed at his eyes with the dirty sleeve of the shirt.

"I'm a big boy," He muttered. "Big boys don't cry."

He pulled his knees to his chest, tucking his shirt under his feet as he moved and buried his face in his arms, his shoulders shook and he found himself unable to stop a sob, his tears running down his cheeks.

"But… But I'm not a big boy anymore, am I?"

Hedwig flew down from a nearby tree, landing next to him. She hopped over to him and gently nibbled at the fingers that dangled down, giving a soft hoot when he turned his head to peer at her with one eye he smiled softly at her, moving his fingers to pet at her head gently.

Letting his legs slide down to a sitting position, he wiped at his eyes with his free arm and gave a loud sniff, willing his nose to unblock from where he'd been crying, he let his fingers slide from Hedwig's head as he peered around the small clearing where he'd collapsed.

The trees were tall, but not tightly packed together, there were many paths and signs, which lead Harry to believe that it might be a local hiking trail, although not a very popular one, judging from the complete lack of any kind of person that he'd seen all day.

He sighed and turned to look at his owl.

"Do you think you could find some kind of shelter for me to stay in, just for tonight?"

Hedwig bobbed her head up and down in an impression of a nod then spread her wings and took off, quickly shooting up past the top of the treeline.

Harry watched the sky as it slowly grew darker as he waited for Hedwig to return, enjoying the clashing of the pinks and oranges as they gave way to dark blues and purples.

The sun had almost fully set when she returned, appearing as a speck of darkness in the low light, her descent to the ground was silent and upon landing she hooted at him, gaining his full attention as she hopped to his left and took off.

Harry shakily stood up and began walking towards the deeper woodlands, following as Hedwig slowly flew in front of him, making sure he could keep up, often perching on low tree branches when he fell behind a bit too far.

The treeline grew denser the further they walked, and the ground filled with overgrown plants, rocks stuck out along the path he was walking far more often than they had on the footpath he'd been following for most of the day.

As he got out of his new hearing range, which was a lot further than it had been when he was human, from the motorway, he noticed the trickling noise of a stream, he picked up his pace, hoping that it was in the direction he was travelling in, after having gone almost the whole day without drinking anything, he was extremely thirsty.

He was rewarded when the tree line broke and he came across an abandoned and rundown cottage, which had a very clear looking stream running alongside it.

Harry ran as quickly as he could on his exhausted legs to the stream and fell to his knees beside it, he cupped his hands and dipped them in the cool water, bringing the liquid up to his mouth to drink, sighing in relief after he'd had a rather large amount of mouthfuls of the water. He knew it was dangerous to drink uncleaned water, but at that point, he didn't really have a choice, nor did he care.

From where he knelt next to the stream, Harry looked at the cottage as he took another sip of the stream's water.

It was completely overgrown with the local plant life, a tree had grown into one of the bottom windows and burst out through an upstairs window, wooden panels had fallen away and landed on the ground and half of the roof seemed to have rotten away, it looked pretty and fit its scenery with its wild look, but at the same time seemed extremely unsafe for use.

"It's not like one night will hurt, right?" He muttered to himself. "It's not going to collapse in on itself after possibly hundreds of years of being left out here just because I decided to sleep in it."

He nodded to himself and stood from the ground, walking over to the door of the cottage and carefully pushed it open.

The inside was surprisingly intact, if very dusty.

There were old tables and chairs scattered about, and after peering into the living room, he noticed that one corner had a bunch of old blankets bundled up, which were also dusty, but suggested that someone had used the house to sleep in before.

With that in mind, he walked over to what he thought was the kitchen and went through its cupboards and the pantry, hoping that the prior campers had left behind some non-perishable foods.

He was in luck, in the back of one small cupboard in the corner, Harry found a single can of tomato soup that was still in date by a whole month, grinning, he pulled on the can's ring, opening it. He didn't have anything to warm it with, so he just drank it from the can.

Now that he'd eaten something and had some water, he was feeling the tired a lot more, as such he walked over to the pile of blankets in the living room, shook them free of the dust and settled down into the corner they'd been bundled in to be the most protected from the elements.

As he was wrapping the last blanket around himself, he noticed that Hedwig had perched on top of the old, half-collapsed fireplace, and was sleeping, a small smile appeared on his face at the sight.

He would need to find himself some new clothes, shoes included, and find a way to keep himself fed, he didn't need to worry about Hedwig as she could hunt food for herself just fine, but he would worry about that tomorrow, for now, he needed to sleep.

He yawned and curled up in the large nest of blankets he'd made, blinking blearily up at the star dotted night's sky which he could see through the cracked window, silently naming the different constellations that he could see, slowly his eyes slid shut and he drifted off to sleep.

Moments later, a quiet creek could be heard, and a figure appeared in the doorway, staring down at the sleeping child.


	4. Chapter 3

Harry was awoken the next day by the early morning sunlight streaming through the broken window as it shone on his uncovered face, he turned over and buried his face further into the musty-smelling blankets with a groan, in his half-asleep state, he almost missed the chuckle that came from the opposite corner of the room.

_Almost._

Harry jerked up in alarm, blankets falling away from his chest and pooling in his lap, he turned to face the person in the room with him, opening his mouth to say something but paused when he finally saw who the person was.

The woman was sat upon an old rocking chair he'd not noticed the previous night, slowly rocking back and forth, occasionally causing slight creaks to come from it, she had a pair of knitting needles and was apparently knitting something, a scarf if he wasn't mistaken. She was rather plump, but he thought that it suited her, giving her a very warm, motherly feel.

 _Oh,_ and she was a ghost.

Her needles and yarn were both ghostly items too, but she was able to interact with physical objects, as shown by her ability to use the rocking chair.

"You're dead," He stated, bluntly.

The ghost burst out laughing at his statement and it took him a moment to figure out what he'd said.

"I'm sorry!" He cried out in alarm. "I didn't mean it like that!"

The ghost just shook her head and waved him off.

"It is alright, young one, I am aware that you meant no harm in your words," Her voice was soothing, and Harry found himself relaxing.

The two stared at each other in silence for a long moment until she shot a concerned glance at him. "Where are your parents? you appear far too young to be on your own."

His eyes watered slightly, and he looked down at his lap, fiddling with the edge of one of the blankets as he attempted to avoid looking at the slightly transparent silverish eyes of the ghostly woman. "I-" He started, stopping to think of how to explain his problem.

Harry knew from his DADA lessons that it was only the ghosts of magical people who existed in a silverish colour, they were also the only ones who kept their entire personality, emotions, and memories.

The ghosts of Muggles were often perceived with full colour, and over time they would begin to lose their memories and emotions, and their personality would often take a rather dangerous turn, this was the reason why so many Muggles warned against staying the night in houses that were perceived as haunted, and why so many of their ghost stories ended with death.

According to a book which Hermione had read from the library after that lesson, there was a whole department in the Ministry of Magic dedicated to helping the ghosts of Muggles pass on, as they were a danger not just to the non-magical population of Britain, but to those with magic too.

With that knowledge in mind, Harry could tell that the ghostly woman had been a Witch when she was alive because of the bluish-silver colour of her semi-transparent body, and if he told about his problem thanks to the Animagus Transformation, she could possibly help him figure out what he should do.

There was the possibility that she could be one of those who were prejudiced against those who were non-human in origin, much like the majority of Wizards and Witches in the United Kingdom at that moment in time, which he had seen first-hand when Professor Lupin had been exposed as a werewolf at the end of the school year which had just passed.

But even with that possibility, something inside of Harry told him that it would be fine to tell her, that the outcome would be the most desirable option between telling her about the issue and not telling her.

"I messed up with the Animagus Transformation," He admitted. "I'm actually thirteen, fourteen in a week."

She leant back in her rocking chair, a contemplative look on her face. "The Animagus Transformation, is it one to take another form, such as a bird, with help of a potion?"

"Yes."

She nodded to herself and looked him in the eyes. "And you have not sought help from those in charge of those blessed with magic? Surely they can help to find you a family of your new species to take you in and teach you their ways?"

Harry winced slightly at the thought of going to the Ministry about his little problem. "No offence, but when exactly did you die?" He questioned.

The ghost raised an eyebrow at him but answered anyway. "I believe it was sometime in the late 1070s according to the Christian calendar, why does this matter?"

He looked at her in mild shock, she was as old as some of the Hogwarts ghosts. "It's 1994, ma'am and the Ministry of Magic is extremely prejudiced against anything that isn't human or doesn't have magic." He informed her.

"Prejudiced against anything not human?" She sounded extremely shocked. "How do we keep our forests, lakes, rivers, oceans, and moorlands safe? Druids help to keep the forests alive, Centaurs help cull invasive species, Merpeople help fish migrations, there are so many, many more non-human species upon this planet than there are human, and all of them have their share to keep the planet alive, and you're telling me that the magical humans now think themselves above them?"

Harry nodded. "And the non-magicals too," He agreed.

She took a deep, calming breath, and turned to look at him. "My house is warded against collapsing," She stated. "You are welcome to stay here as long as you need."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"No need to call me 'ma'am', young one, you may call me 'Nana'."

He looked up at her in shock, before looking away shyly. "My name's Harry."

She grinned, then got up from her seat and walked over to him, slowly she lowered herself to the ground until she was sitting across from him.

"So, other than being an adorable little boy," Her grin grew wider as his cheeks grew pink in embarrassment. "Have you noticed anything else that has changed about yourself?"

"Um, why do you need to know?" He asked.

Her smile grew smaller and softer as she looked down at him, understanding his discomfort. "Perhaps if you were to tell me, we could begin to figure out what you are."

He frowned slightly and tilted his head in thought, it would be a good idea to know what his species was exactly so that he would know what to expect from his growing patterns, and also how to take care of himself properly such as making sure he got the correct foods.

"Well," He began nervously. "I can remember anything I read, even if I only glance at it, um, one of the books I looked at called it 'photographic memory'."

The ghost, or Nana, as she asked to be called gave an encouraging smile and gestured for him to continue.

"I can smell scents of things, like Hedwig over there," He pointed to his owl who was still sleeping with her head tucked under her wing on the fireplace. "She smells like spruce wood, feathers, and the wind," Harry paused and tilted his head to face his beloved owl, sniffing at the air. "Actually, she also has something else which smells like it's behind those three which smells like 'snowy owl', I can't really explain it."

Nana's smile was gentle as he talked about how his owl smelt. "So, a very good memory and a very strong sense of smell, anything else?"

He nodded. "My eyesight's really, _really_ good now, it used to be really, _really_ bad, and I can hear things really loud now, and uh," He trailed off, looking at the floor, unwilling to look at the kind ghost.

"What is it?" She asked him in concern. "What's wrong?"

"I don't… feel comfortable," He muttered, grasping at his chest.

"What don't you feel comfortable with? Perhaps I can help?" She suggested.

"Two hearts," He stated, tears beginning to form in his eyes, and she could tell that it was only just beginning to register in his mind what had happened to him, after having spent the prior day in shock while trying to get somewhere safe.

"Two hearts?"

"Yeah…" He muttered, looking down at his hands.

"Well then," She began cheerfully. "You know what that means, right?"

He peered up at her and shook his head slightly.

"Two hearts? Well, that's double the love to give!"

His head jerked up in surprise and he stared at her in open shock. "Double the love?"

"Of course!" She cried out. "Love comes from the heart, and you Harry, have two!"

He looked down at his chest in thought.

"Double the love…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seeing people guessing as to who the strange person in the doorway was and knowing that it was none of those was amazing.
> 
> Also, 'Nana' is not an OC, get your votes in now for who she is!


	5. Chapter 4

The two had talked for a few hours when Harry finally noticed that he was beginning to hunger, he looked towards the cracked window and frowned when he noticed that the sun was at its highest point in the sky, signifying that it was midday.

"Do you know where the nearest town is?" He asked her.

"I believe it is a half an hour walk in the northern direction," She told him, as he stood from where he was half-laying on the floor. "What is it that you need?"

"Clothes," He shrugged. "And food, a bag would be nice, maybe a book or two?"

Nana frowned at him. "You do not have suitable clothing?"

"Just what I'm wearing, oh and an invisibility cloak!"

She gave him a concerned glance and hummed. "I suppose it would be within your best interests to go and get some clothes then, you have money, correct?"

He nodded and pulled out the pouch that he kept his money in, it contained some wizarding money as well as about two hundred and fifty pounds, which he'd had converted the previous summer at the same time he'd obtained the money to pay the potioneer.

She watched him for a few moments and then nodded. "Don't forget shoes and underwear."

He blushed as she began herding him out the door, carefully helping him avoid debris on the ground, once there, she turned him to face the direction that he assumed was north.

"Walk in a line, or as much as possible until you reach the town and be back before the sun sets."

He nodded, a serious look on his face as he began walking away.

"Oh, and Harry?" She called after him, waiting until he'd turned back around to face her to continue. "That wand of yours? You might want to get rid of it."

"What? _Why?"_ He cried out in a mixture of panic and confusion.

She gave him a sad smile. "So long as the magic has been attached to an object for a while, ghosts can feel it. There is some form of tracking magic clinging to it, and from what you have spoken of the magical world of the current day, having people find where you are is not something that you would want."

Harry pulled his wand out from the pocket on his shirt, looking at it in bewilderment, until he recalled the incident in the summer between his first and second year at Hogwarts, where he'd gotten in trouble for casting magic when it was actually Dobby's actions, he also recalled Hermione mentioning something called 'the Trace', which monitored the magic casted by students.

Nana was correct, he didn't want to be found by the Wizarding World, who knows what they would do to him now that he was no longer human?

If Harry Potter didn't turn up for his fourth year at Hogwarts, would they decide to track him down? If it was possible to use the Trace to track his magic use, then why not the wand itself? And even if they didn't try and track him down with that originally, if he used magic through the wand it would cause the Trace to go off, leading them to him.

"Yeah," He frowned and gave a sad nod, tucking the wand back into his pocket. "That might be for the best…"

She gave a sad smile and placed her hand on his shoulder, ignoring his shudder from the chill of her ghostly form, "A focus is not worth more than the life of its wielder, even if the focus has bonded to them."

He looked up at her, feeling so incredibly small at that moment. "I understand, but I wish I didn't."

She sighed and patted his shoulder. "Go on, those clothes will not purchase themselves."

Harry nodded and turned away once more to begin his walk to the local town.

As he walked, he took the time to familiarise himself with the scenery just in case he ever found himself lost within the woods. There were many different types of trees, some of which he could identify, such as the pine trees, willow trees, and even an occasional cherry blossom tree.

The ground was covered in a mix of moss and grass, with the occasional rock or boulder sticking out from the ground, forcing him to pay extra close attention to where he placed his admittedly sore feet.

He soon stumbled upon a walking path, which skirted the edge of a town where the treeline suddenly came to a stop and quickly made his way into the town, ignoring the way some of the adults looked at him.

He knew he looked a mess, _honestly,_ he was the size of a toddler, and he wore only a torn and muddy shirt that was far too large for him.

The first thing Harry did was look for a bin, he wandered up and down the streets, idly picking out the shops that sold clothes that most likely wouldn't care about a small unattended child shopping for clothes, so long as said child had the money.

He found one eventually on a small pedestrian street, next to a set of traffic lights, and walked up to it, pulling his wand from his pocket, he looked down at it sadly, and then dropped it into the black bag that lined it.

Eventually, the bin would be emptied, and the wand would be taken to wherever it was that the bin men took the rubbish to, and then if someone were to track it, they would end in a big pile of rubbish, no Harry in sight.

He stood, staring at the bin for a good five minutes until he forced himself to move on from the spot, it was time to look for clothes.

While hoping that no-one would ask questions about why an apparent toddler was shopping for himself, he'd felt what he could only describe as getting pins and needles in your leg after it had been in the same position for a really long time, only this was in his _head,_ not his leg.

After that, once he'd made eye contact with one of the sales assistants, their eyes had glazed over and had been perfectly happy to help him find clothes in his correct size.

Before his sudden transformation, he would have called it accidental magic, however something inside of him screamed that this was the incorrect conclusion, and as such he chalked it up as an ability of his new species.

He spent the rest of his outing in the small town figuring out how to control this new ability of his, while also finishing his much-needed shopping, grabbing a pair of shoes that actually fit him, a nice big hiking bag, lots of non-perishable foods, a nice big fluffy blanket with a pillow, and some non-fiction books that he'd pulled out of a bargain bin, all of which he stored in his new bag.

He'd also eaten a pasty from the local bakery, and gotten some paper, pens, and envelopes, just in case he decided to send a message to Sirius with Hedwig, he was his godfather, after all, he deserved to know what happened to him, _didn't he?_

His trip back to the cottage from the town was a lot more tolerable than the journey there, thanks to the fact that he was now wearing a pair of shoes and not just running around barefooted, and he made it back with a few hours to spare.

He quickly made his way into the living room, smiling at Nana who was once again knitting on her rocking chair.

"Have a nice time?" She asked him.

"It was..." He trailed off as he thought of the correct words to describe his day. _"Informative."_

_"Oh?"_ She looked up, raising an eyebrow at the large bag on the boy's back, but not saying anything. "How so?"

He moved to his corner, kneeling down and quickly unpacking his things from the bag, adding the blanket and pillow to the pile of old blankets in the corner of the room. "Think I might have brainwashed the staff members at the shops to pretend I wasn't an unattended a toddler or something."

"You used magic to make them believe something that wasn't?"

"I don't think it was magic," He corrected while placing a can of soup on a pile of other canned food items. "Felt like I was doing it with my head."

She frowned slightly in thought. "There are some species with psychic tendencies, some more than others, but there is an ability in some of these species called 'Hypnosis', I believe a spell was created based upon this ability, and some non-magical humans even managed to create a version which needed no magic at all to perform."

Harry stared at her, a conflicted look on his face.

"Even still, these psychic abilities are not magic, similar though they may seem, and many species are mistaken for magical as a result," She looked at him, creating direct eye contact, "Perhaps this is what you are experiencing?"

Harry gulped in nervousness.

"Well, it is no matter for this moment."

And with that, they went back to a somewhat tense silence, as Harry stacked his food and Nana knitted.


End file.
